From K-State to Auburn good times rolled
Your team is terrible. Every team is terrible. The Big 12 is terrible — on that we can all agree. Kickers are terrible. Everything is terrible.
College football made what felt like an official return in Week 4, with upsets, poor performances, odd coaching decisions, faulty special teams, conferencewide flops and more amounting to, well, a normal Saturday with or without a global pandemic.
You can thank the SEC for most of that. The league returned after spending much of September on the sidelines and immediately ratcheted up the level of interest in what had been a sleepy start to the regular season.
There were laughs: LSU lost to Mississippi State. There were tears: Georgia was losing at halftime to Arkansas. There were good wins (Auburn against Kentucky) and not-so-pretty wins (Florida against Mississippi).
The SEC’s return was almost enough to overshadow another awful weekend for the Big 12. But not quite. After Oklahoma lost to Kansas State, the Big 12 has brought itself to the verge of College Football Playoff elimination before the end of the first month. The league’s toestubbing Saturday is the biggest story to come out of Week 4 — even more so than LSU’s loss, which seems shocking but is more the predictable result of the program’s massive upheaval since the end of last season.
That said, some good things did happen. Here’s where:
Smiling today
Auburn and Mississippi State Auburn struggled getting its running game going against Kentucky but rode opportunistic plays on defense and a solid game from sophomore quarterback Bo Nix to a 29-15 win. The Tigers are a legitimate contender, while Kentucky will be a tough out in the East division should the offense protect the football.
Mississippi State’s win marks an epic debut for new coach Mike Leach and for quarterback K.J. Costello, who rewrote the program’s single-game passing records after transferring from Stanford. While it took Leach’s offense a year to get going during his previous stint at Washington State, the Bulldogs’ offense looks ready to roll.
Louisiana
For the second week in a row, it wasn’t the prettiest win: Louisiana fell behind 18-17 to Georgia Southern with 54 seconds left before driving 39 yards to set up the game-winning 53-yard field goal as time expired. It doesn’t matter. As more teams slip and flop, including conference rival Appalachian State, the Ragin’ Cajuns remain in the thick of the New Year’s Six bowl race.
Pittsburgh
Only the smartest pundits saw this coming: Pitt at home in the Top 25 and a contender for a New Year’s Six bowl. While moving ahead of Notre Dame into second place in the ACC (behind Clemson, obviously) is a tall task, the Panthers are now 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the ACC after a 23-20 win against Louisville. They’re not flawless by any means, but the Panthers’ blend of experience and aggressiveness on defense gives them a shot at winning eight games in the regular season.
Cincinnati
Moving ahead of the best teams in the American might be too much for Louisiana, however. Cincinnati deserves to be placed alongside Central Florida after a 24-10 win against Army, which had been dominant through its first two games. The Bearcats held Army to 182 yards rushing on 4.2 yards a carry. Kansas State
After losing its opener to Arkansas State, the Wildcats pulled off a second upset in as many years against Oklahoma by riding quarterback Skyler Thompson, who finished with 334 yards passing and four total touchdowns, and by forcing four turnovers, three via interceptions from Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler. Given the program’s physical approach under second-year coach Chris Klieman, it’s remarkable the Wildcats were able to win despite gaining only 66 yards on the ground.
Arkansas
Arkansas’ SEC losing streak has now hit 20 games. There’s nothing good about that. But this is a positive worth highlighting: Arkansas led Georgia 7-5 at halftime. That’s progress. (The final score was 37-10.)
Mac Jones
Alabama’s new starting quarterback completed 18 of 24 attempts for 249 yards with two scores to carry the Crimson Tide past Missouri. While Jones played similarly well as the injury replacement for Tua Tagovailoa last fall, this debut as the Tide’s full-time starter should slow down calls for Nick Saban to promote five-star freshman Bryce Young, who threw for 54 yards in limited duty.